Legal issues
Throughout its history, the company faced legal challenges stemming from both environmental pollution incidents, including involvement in the tetracycline litigation, and safety incidents such as the 1964 American Cyanamid explosion. Throughout the 1970s, substantial funds were allocated for effluent treatment initiatives. For instance, a $15-million investment went into the construction of a tertiary water treatment facility in Bound Brook, New Jersey, and this plant not only cleaned water to a level surpassing that of the polluted Raritan River, but also addressed decades of pollution by American Cyanamid. Tens of millions more were spent in efforts to clean up large wastewater pools which had decades of toxic accumulation of carcinogenic, and teratogenic chemicals. These are considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be among the most toxic chemical waste sites in the country. Responsibility for the clean-up of these sites remained with the site owner during these corporate transitions.[45][46] Remediation began at Bound Brook in 2007[47] before being taken over by Pfizer in 2009.[48]
In addition to frequent chemical leaks, the 575-acre Superfund site at Bound Brook-Bridgewater also had a history of flooding. It was flooded in the 1930s and again in August 1971 during Tropical Storm Doria, at which time the plant sustained severe damage. In 2011, during Hurricane Irene, the site once again flooded but by this time all manufacturing had ended and all buildings had been torn down. However, impounds and waste sites remained with consequent leakage of benzene and other chemicals into the Raritan River and adjacent land, including residential areas.[49] Despite subsequent testing showing no evident danger to humans, calamity intensified the cleanup work already underway, and the EPA announced another remediation plan for the site in September 2012.[50] In 1973 the Georgia State Water Quality Control Board forced Cyanamid to stop dumping sulfuric acid in the Wilmington and Savannah Rivers, arguing that chemicals were causing mass fish kills.
On October 6, 1984, a cloud of toxic fumes leaking from the Linden Cyanamid Insecticide Plant spread over a 20-mile area of New Jersey and Staten Island, affecting thousands of residents living near the facility.[51][52] More than 100 people were hospitalized, and the fumes prompted the evacuation of hundreds of workers from nearby industrial areas and an issuance of a temporary shelter-in-place. In early 1985, another insecticide leak from the same plant prompted more than 200 complaints to police and local hospitals of breathing problems and nausea in Brooklyn and Staten Island.[53]
In addition to environmental concerns, American Cyanamid also faced numerous labor related challenges throughout its history, including more than 8,000 lawsuits and violations from both federal and state agencies.[54] In 1942, American Cyanamid was fined $453,461 for antitrust violations, and in 1975, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that American Cyanamid violated labor laws by permanently contracting out maintenance and service work at its Westwego, Louisiana plant while workers were on strike.[55] The company was then ordered to reinstate the workers and bargain with the union. In 1978, more than 1,300 workers at the Linden, NJ plant decided to strike to protest against managers ignoring health hazards, including exposure to carcinogens and asbestos.[56]
In the United Kingdom, the company was involved in a well-known legal case, American Cyanamid Co v Ethicon Ltd, which set the test for awarding an interim injunction in England and Wales and set down what became known to lawyers as the American Cyanamid principles.[57] The American Cyanamid principles are also applied under public procurement law when the high court determines whether to lift the automatic suspension of the power to award a public contract when an application has been made to the court to challenge the lawfulness of a proposed contract award.[58]
Willow Island Incident
In 1978, when the company decided that lead exposure at the Willow Island plant might cause birth defects, women of child-bearing age in the plant were ordered to quit, accept demotion, or be sterilized.[59] In October 1979, the Department of Labor fined the company $10,000, maintaining that the policy was a major hazard that violated the Occupational Safety and Health Act. In 1984, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington D.C. Circuit Court dismissed the charge, ruling that a company policy, as opposed to a physical workplace condition did not constitute a "hazard" within the meaning of OSHA. That same year, the ACLU filed a lawsuit alleging that the policy was a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[60][2] The case was settled out of court, with American Cyanamid paying $200,000 and admitting no liability.
